UPDATE: Body found in Tug Fork River identified

SOUTH WILLIAMSON, Ky. (WYMT) - The State Medical Examiners Office has made a positive identification on the body that was located in the Tug Fork River in South Williamson, Ky.

The deceased was identified as 41 year old Chad Everett Roberts of Rawl, WV. This case remains under investigation by Kentucky State Police Detective Gary Sykes.

_____________________________________________________SOUTH WILLIAMSON, Ky. (WYMT) - Police are investigating the discovery of a body that washed up on the banks of the Tug Fork River on the West Virginia/Kentucky border.

Not much is known about the body or how it ended up there, and officials say the investigation is just beginning.

Monday afternoon officials in Mingo County, WV, and Pike County, KY, got the startling call.

"He was laying in that little sandy spot that's kind of rolled up right there," said Belfry Fire Chief Nee Jackson as he pointed in the direction where a body washed up on the bank of the Tug Fork River right on the border between the states.

"Anything on the Kentucky side and the river is Kentucky's, so the body was located in the Tug Fork River so it was under Kentucky's jurisdiction," said Kentucky State Police Trooper Shaun Little.

The man who originally reported the body said he saw something strange as he was driving by, so he got out a pair of binoculars and that is when he realized exactly what he was looking at.

"The body was 95% or maybe even 99% out of the water," said Jackson.

Officials say the recovery process was a steep one.

"We came around the flood wall with the ATV and wenched it. We turned it down toward the river and used a wench cable to pull the stokes basket back up," said Jackson.

Mingo County officials say they are working a case of a missing man, but they are waiting for the medical examiner to make a positive identification to determine if this body is that missing man.

The body was taken to frankfort for an autopsy and positive identification.

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